Mexborough and Swinton Times October 28 1938

Wonderful Old Lady

Few people are as fit at the age of 88 as Mrs. Mary Hutchinson, of Co-operative Street, Goldthorpe, who is probably the oldest resident in the township.

Throughout her life Mrs. Hutchinson has had a personal interest in coal and the mining of it. She is the daughter of a Wigan miner who later moved to Lundhill, Wombwell. Her father and uncle were both killed in the terrible accident at that colliery and Mrs. Hutchinson is one of the few remaining eye-witnesses of the scenes of that day. She tells a thrilling story of how she sat in the garden of their home at Lundhill and watched the flames streaking up the pit shaft.

After the explosion Mrs. Hutchinson’s mother took her four fatherless children back to Wigan and she worked at a colliery to keep the family and herself. Mrs. Hutchinson lived for a short time in America, but returned to Goldthorpe many years ago.

Many of her 15 children are working in the pits in the district. In spite of her great age Mrs. Hutchinson is still one of the most active women in Goldthorpe. She retains all her faculties, apart from the fact that she is slightly deaf. This she considers in many ways a good thing because, as she says, “I miss a lot of badness.”